Page 49

“You don’t ask questions. You shut your mouth and follow orders, got it?”

When I didn’t answer, two hands banded around my neck, fingers pressing hard on my carotid arteries. Spots danced in my vision, and I lifted my sluggish arms to ward off the assault, but the drugs had rendered my body useless.

He pulled away before I lost consciousness. “Take him outside.”

Two men hefted me into a slumped-standing position, and we slowly stumbled to the front door. “Don’t do this.” Another blow to the face shut me up. My chest squeezed as they pushed me down the stairs of the porch. I plummeted to the ground, rolled, and tried to brand my mind with every detail of the place where I’d spent so many summers growing up.

The fuckers were going to burn it down. My father’s cabin. The island. All I had left of him.

“Why are you doing this?”

A boot shot out and struck me in the kidney. I grunted, back arching, and held my breath.

“Shut the fuck up!” one of them shouted, adding another kick to my side. “Stubborn asshole.”

I peered up, trying to make out a face, but a baseball cap and sunglasses obscured his features. The other guy stood off to the left, remaining out of sight. Neither of their voices seemed familiar, though that didn’t mean shit. Everything around me hit my ears in an odd way. Crickets sounded, normally a melodic chirp, but their call blared in my ears like a screeching alarm.

Footsteps thundered down the stairs. “Let’s go. Get him to the dock.” His buddies hauled me to my feet and forced me toward the path, and the guy at my back laughed. “Little early for the Fourth of July, but what a show, huh?”

I clenched my hands, tested my strength. Whatever they’d given me was beginning to wear off, though not enough that I could overpower three men. Maybe more.

And Alex…

I swallowed hard. They had her somewhere. If I fought them, they’d hurt her…or worse.

What if they’ve already hurt her?

The idea sickened me, made me want to lash out and pound into them. My mind was fully alert now, demanding Idosomething, but my sluggish body wouldn’t…couldn’t fight. I’d never felt so weak as when I climbed the small hill that led to the dock. Sweat slicked down my bare back, though I trembled from the chill of the late night breeze. I fell to the ground twice on the way down, and their laughter hollowed through me each time, like a demon that taunted.

Evil. Whoever these men were, they were pure evil.

When we reached the dock, they pushed me to my knees, facing the island. I couldn’t see the cabin from this vantage point, but the trees surrounding it towered, nothing more than shadows against the backdrop of mountains.

One of the men lit a torch and passed it off. “You get the honors. Make it quick. We need to get out of here.”

I blinked, horrified by the sting in my eyes. I’d survived a lot and had never cried, but the thought of watching my father’s island go up in smoke gutted me. “Don’t do this. I can get you money.” I risked looking up and met the dark gaze of someone who struck a cord of recognition in me, though I couldn’t place where I’d seen him before. “What do you want?” I asked.

“I want you to suffer.”

I opened my mouth, about to ask him what he wanted with me, when his fist slammed into my nose. I cupped my face and doubled over, crashing into the planks of the dock. Two hands wrenched me up. “Watch it fucking burn.”

A billow of smoke surged upward, tinted an eerie orange-red from the glow of flames. A guy sprinted toward the dock. “Get him in the boat! Let’s go!”

I shot out a fist at the first fucker who tried dragging me to my feet. He snickered. I didn’t pose a threat to them—I was so weak a kitten could probably beat the shit out of me. They lifted me and dumped my boneless body into a dinghy.

“He’s heavier than he looks. Think our weight will sink this thing?”

“Shut the fuck up and get in.” They piled inside, and someone started the motor.

The island grew smaller as we sped off. I gazed at my home, now nothing more than a raging inferno, some of the last memories I had left up in flames. Who were these men, but more importantly, why?

Why Dad’s island?

Why had they taken Alex?

What did they want with me?

The ride ended a few short minutes later, and they hauled me from the boat and up the ramp. I didn’t walk as much as shuffle toward the sedan parked a few yards away. A guy exited through the passenger side door and popped the trunk, revealing Alex’s bound and gagged form inside. She wasn’t squirming, wasn’t even moving.

My heart raced as I weighed my options. I could try to fight them off, but I didn’t know for certain how many men surrounded me. Three, four, five? I glanced over my shoulder and met the barrel of the gun Jax had given me. “Don’t over think it, Mason. Get in the trunk.”

A startling blast sounded. I jumped, adrenaline flooding my system, and stared at the fire engulfing the island. Not a gun shot. The propane tank outside the cabin must have ignited.

“We don’t have time for this bullshit.” Sirens blared, distant, but it wouldn’t take long for the area to flood with emergency vehicles. Maybe Icouldfight them, stall long enough for help to arrive. “Get in the fucking trunk,” he said, cocking the gun and swerving it toward Alex, “or I’ll shoot your girl.”

I could fight them. I might even hold them off for a few minutes, but what if they shot her? What if they killed me and took off with her?

I did the only thing I could. I crawled into the trunk.